Hello there! First of all, thank you for clicking on this story. It's a small thing, but it means a great deal to me. I have to put out a disclaimer first: Usually self-inserts kind of make me cringe, although I have read some good ones too. However, since I wrote this story between 6 - 8 years ago and decided to revisit it now, it's clear I was all for self-inserts back then. I think every Mass Effect fan wants to be Shepard anyway, right?
Anyway, I really hope you enjoy my version of the story and feel free to leave any positive or constructively negative reviews at your leisure.
Eden Prime
Some nights were worse than others, but the nightmare always repeated itself without fail. As I choked on the smoke of the battlefield, eyes red as they strained to stay open, the Batarians were battering their way through our lines; one by one our heavy weapons positions were falling silent. I made the call,
"All call-signs retreat to secondary positions. FSG pour on the covering fire with everything you have!"
"Yes Sir!" came the answer, closely followed by one of the most horrendous displays of artillery fire I had yet seen in my short military career. The countryside surrounding the Human colony on the planet of Elysium was instantly and violently torn apart by every heavy gun that our unit had in support. My fellow Marines used the cover to quickly fall back to new defensive positions, but they were not fast enough.
Whatever heavy weapons we had in support were almost worthless next to what the Batarians had. In moments those new defensive positions were left as a smouldering ash-land as the enemy sent in their shock troopers to smash what little fight there was left in our unit. Looking around at the dispirited soldiers next to me I realised that there was no way we could hold the aliens back.
"Everyone run for the command post, we can funnel them into a kill-zone and wait for the Navy to bring the big guns in."
Whilst half of my men began their retreat I co-ordinated with the cover team. With my scope raised to my eye I aimed down into the seething mass of Batarian soldiers. Against their pale brown skin, their four dark black eyes and their drab, khaki armour the red stripe was easy to spot on the shoulder-plate of the Officer. With a squeeze of the trigger my sniper rifle bolted back into my shoulder as the bullet jetted out of the barrel and into the neck of the Batarian Captain.
Two more fell to my rifle before my kinetic shields flared into life. A Batarian sniper had found me and taken his shot, but my shields stopped it. However, the force of the shot had fried my generator; that was the last time I could rely on my shields saving me that day. The dozen Marines that were still with me were giving the Batarians everything they had, but a dozen against a horde of hundreds does not count for a whole lot.
The first group had reached their positions and were firing over our heads at the enemy formations. Incoming fire was heavy, the ground around us was being torn apart and worn away by the sheer volume of incoming bullets, but we had to move.
"Deploy an arc of smoke and let's get out of here!" I yelled, "Dawson, lay down some heavy fire while the screen fills out."
"Yes Lieutenant."
Private Dawson unleashed a firestorm with his machine gun as the rest of the squad legged it to the next position. I stayed with Dawson until everyone had gone, covering them with my rifle and putting down a number of the four-eyed Batarians until I heard the thud behind me. Private Kilroy had taken several shots into his back as he had clambered out of our foxhole and his body collapsed heavily onto the ground next to me.
"Fuck! Dawson, get your ass out of here. I'll be right behind you."
Dawson threw both of his grenades out at the enemy before he went. I grabbed his machine gun as he passed and I sent every last bullet flying at the enemy. My Marines were putting down effective, accurate fire and I took my opportunity to retreat. As I sprinted towards my men I passed by two bodies, two of those lost on the retreat.
As my feet hammered across the churned-up ground one after the other, I saw a flash of movement from one of the bodies. Corporal Gait's hand shot out to me and a weak cry for help followed. Ignoring all the military training that told me to just keep running, I stooped down and grabbed Gait and carried him with me. Gait was a tough soldier, and true to his form he whipped out his pistol and continued firing at the Batarians. His right leg was shredded and bleeding profusely; there was no way he was going to make it, but still I held onto him and pulled him back to our squad.
Gasping for air I finally reached my men and had Gait taken off of me; he was dead.
"God dammit!" I shouted, beating my fist into the dirt. The rest of the squad formed around me and continued their valiant stand against the onslaught of the aliens that swarmed up over the fields towards us. Except for their four eyes and sharp needle teeth, the Batarians were the same as us Humans; two arms and two legs, but at that moment I considered them to be monsters.
The attack had come out of nowhere. Elysium was not even directly on the border with the Terminus Systems and was thought of to be well sheltered within the Attican Traverse region of the galaxy. Yet here the Batarian pirates and mercenaries were, sweeping across the planet to take every Human they could find away in chains for sale back in their own part of the Milky Way. I decided there and then that no more of my men were dying and I ordered them to fall all the way back to the command post, after leaving me with most of their thermal clips.
With my trusty sniper rifle and two machine guns left to me, I bunkered down and fired everything I had at the Batarian bastards. When one gun over-heated I switched to the other, and when that gun's barrel was glowing hot I switched back again. I threw grenades, I hollered and bellowed at the oncoming foes, I sniped any troublesome targets, gunned down enemies that got too close with my pistol, ducked and dodged and crawled between foxholes and shell-craters. Dirt and blood covered my face and the sweat stuck to me like glue. Yet the adrenaline kept pumping and I had never before felt so aware, so alert. So alive.
It was hell, a whole hour of hell. For that entire hour I held my ground, keeping up as much fire as I could to hold the Batarians back. My men had reached the command centre and were dug in alongside the survivors from other units and together they had formed a formidable defensive line. Finally, after an hour of sheer abuse the machine guns finally failed to fire and became useless. With my rifle I shot an enemy through the heart, at least that was where Humans had their hearts. Then, I began to run.
My chest was pounding, my legs felt like lead weights and my ears were ringing from all the gunfire. Artillery, friendly and otherwise, was landing all around the landscape as I gave it everything to make it across the kilometre stretch to the Command Post. When I finally got there, I collapsed. Medics were crowding over me and shifting me to a place where they could check me over, but after a single dose of medi-gel I was on my feet once more.
"Lieutenant Gardner, you've been shot three times! You need to lie down and let us sort you out," a young medic yelled after me. I turned to her and said,
"We need every gun at our disposal out there right now. I'm going."
On the roof of the CP I rejoined my squad, reloaded my rifle and set to work once again. The Batarians were preparing their final attack, one more push and all Alliance Military resistance would be crushed in this region of Elysium. They had set up forward firing positions to keep the heat on us while they re-distributed their formations. The updates kept coming through on the radio,
"Batarians circling around to our south, at least two hundred of them."
"Batarians flanking to the north as well, estimated numbers around two to three hundred."
"Batarian drop-ships, at least four klicks out, inbound and on a trajectory to head round behind us, they're going to have us totally surrounded!"
With my sniper rifle I took out a Batarian on the run with a shot to his gut and then proceeded to catch another shooter in the shoulder. Many Batarians were becoming casualties, but they showed no signs of stopping yet. Then the drop-ships appeared, looming closer and closer, flying low to the ground to make their bombardment as effective as possible. We had a few missile launchers to hand, but these ships were heavily armoured and their guns would probably be aimed straight at the roof of the CP to eliminate such threats. The Batarians were long-term veterans of space and planet-to-planet warfare whereas Humanity was still quite fresh on the galactic scene. They were confident of victory and were willing to pay a high price for a prestigious win.
The drop-ships drew up about two hundred metres away in a semi-circle formation around the base and the first shots came hurtling in. The world shook under the weight of the explosions, my hearing went completely. All I could do was keep my head down and hope I did not get vapourised by the next shell. Something was off, however. The explosions did not seem to be as close as I had expected, so I looked back up.
As my eyes took in the scene one of the Batarian drop-ships went ploughing into the ground nose first, the centre section having been completely blown away. A second followed, then the third and then the rest of them. Alliance fighters zoomed overhead and blazed away at the Batarian infantry with their lasers, cannons and missiles. I looked over to where the heavy fire was coming from and what I saw almost had me leaping for joy.
An Alliance cruiser and two frigates were coming in with their huge cannons firing off in rapid succession. The positions that had previously been occupied by the assaulting Batarians were now bare patches of scorched and burning dirt. The Batarians fled, the Alliance fighters and gunships pursued and the cruiser and its escorts went off to join the battle against the main Terminus fleet that had remained in orbit. The Alliance had won.
I did not, however, see the end of the battle. My wounds were more severe than I had anticipated and blood-loss caused me to black out before I could see the victory complete. When I awakened days later, I was told that Commodore Steven Hackett, the Commanding Officer of the Human fleet that had just saved Elysium, wanted to see me. The lean yet tough looking Officer told me that had it not been for my actions in holding off the Batarian ground forces by myself for so long, the CP would have fallen. With communications out the resistance across Elysium would have been greatly hindered and possibly cut all together.
"You're a hero Scott. Without you holding your position we wouldn't have reached the planet in time," The highly respected Officer told me.
"I didn't do anything that any other soldier wouldn't do, Sir."
"No, no. You went above and beyond what most other soldiers would do, and you lived to tell the tale. Lieutenant, no, Commander Scott Gardner; you just saved Elysium."
Promoted and made a hero of the Human Alliance; that was how that chapter of my life ended. I was only 22 at the time, and now people could only associate me with Elysium even four years later in the year 2183. I cannot complain, but at the same time it was not how I saw it. I lost a few good men in that conflict and they continued to shadow me whenever I was about to embark upon any military operation. Even as I began to stir in my bed in my quarters on board the SSV Normandy, the most advanced and experimental ship in the Alliance Navy, Gait's last stand was playing itself repeatedly in my head.
I shook it off, donned my heavy combat armour, gathered my M92 Mantis sniper rifle, M8 Avenger assault rifle and M5 Phalanx pistol. It was a lot of gear to carry, I knew, but I was trained to be ready for anything and my weapons and armour did wonders for my confidence. My comm unit beeped into to life as Captain Anderson summoned me to the bridge; our operation was about to begin.
This was the SSV Normandy's first mission since completing her trials less than a month ago, and it was also the first proper test of her completely new and state-of-the-art stealth systems. By containing the frigate's heat emissions, the normal fashion by which a ship could be detected in space or in orbit, the ship could travel for hours completely undetected. It was highly experimental; no other vessel in any known fleet had any sort of stealth systems, not the Asari, the Salarians, Quarians or even the Turians. The Normandy was developed with the help of the Turian military and funding from the Council, but was still regarded as a largely Human venture.
Our destination was the Human colony world of Eden Prime, a beautiful paradise planet with no strategic and very little military value. Fortunately, this was not an offensive operation. Eden Prime had some of the newest and best detection systems available in Council Space; if the Normandy could make it down to the planet's surface, have the ground team, of which I was in charge, pickup a shipment of a clandestine nature and then leave the planet without being detected, the mission would be deemed successful.
However, that was only the mission brief we had been given. It made sense to those who simply accepted it, but a few of us had the feeling that there was something else entirely going on here. One indication that something was amiss was the presence of Captain Anderson. The Londoner was the most respectable and amiable Officers I had ever had the pleasure to work under, but this mission had him tense, irritable.
The second was Nihlus, the Turian Spectre. A Spectre, short for Special Tactics and Recon, was an elite individual hand picked by the Council to join a privileged group of Black Ops soldiers. The Turian had caused a real fuss among the crew when he had come aboard, Spectres were small in number and were only trusted with the most dangerous or secret of tasks. Indeed, even as I walked through the ship towards where Flight Lieutenant Jeff "Joker" Moreau was piloting the ship in the bridge, I saw Nihlus standing in a dark corner. He was not doing anything, just watching, learning.
The Turian stood about a foot taller than any Human, as was normal between the two species, but he was also of typical Turian build; lean and thin limbed but fast and agile. His black and red armour gave him an incriminating appearance, but I had been able to speak to him on a few, short occasions and knew that he was in fact a very honourable and focused individual. Spectres were above the law, as permitted by the Council who raised them up so, but Nihlus still had a healthy respect for doing things the right way, not the fastest or easiest. He gave me a polite nod when he caught sight of me, but stayed at his self-assigned post and continued to monitor the crew.
Joker was in his usual seat, guiding the Normandy through the black emptiness that surrounded us and towards Eden Prime. Beside him was Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, a good friend who I had met shortly after the Blitz on Elysium. An excellent, level-headed and dependable soldier who had fast become my choice selection for my Second-in-Command on most operations. The well-mannered Canadian was not a pilot, but he was qualified enough to check communication systems after a trip through a Mass Relay. As well as being one of the finest soldiers I had served with and a good friend he was also a biotic. Able to manipulate dark energy fields in a small way that could be used to blast enemies, lift heavy objects and even create biotic barriers around himself to deflect bullets or explosive forces.
Human biotics were not overly rare, but they were not the kind of person that you would encounter every day either. However, his abilities sometimes came at a cost. Kaidan was one of the more powerful Human biotics that I knew of, but because of this he was frequently stricken by severe migraines that could cripple him for anything between an hour to a whole day. Today, however, he was in great shape and seemed to be enjoying Joker's crude humour for a change.
The Normandy had just cleared the Mass Relay and Joker was running his post-travel checks on his "Baby".
"Emissions sink engaged, comms are up and running… all systems active. Drift at just under fifteen hundred K."
Kaidan nodded along with Joker as he ran through his checks when a voice came from behind us,
"Fifteen hundred is good. I'll inform the Captain."
Nihlus turned and walked away, leaving Joker a little pissed,
"I hate that guy."
"Nihlus gave you a compliment… so you hate him?" put in Kaidan.
Joker snorted with contempt,
"You remember to zip up your jump-suit on the way out of the bathroom, that's good. I just jumped through most of the galaxy and landed this ship on a target the size of a coffee cup. That's damn amazing."
I could not help but laugh, Joker may have had a mouth on him, but he was the finest pilot in the entire Human Alliance Navy. That's why he was here.
"It's not just that though," Joker continued, "Nihlus is a Spectre. Where there's a Spectre there's usually a whole lot of trouble. I don't like having him on board."
I had to step in before Joker went down a bad route,
"The Council funded the Normandy's design and construction. If they want to send someone to see how she performs, who are we to say otherwise?"
"Yeah totally," Joker feigned agreement, "but why a Spectre? Any sort of official or admiral would've done surely."
He had a point,
"They don't send Spectres on run-of-the-mill missions like this, can't deny it."
"My win," Joker finished.
The intercom crackled into life and Captain David Anderson's voice sounded out,
"Joker, send the Commander to the comm room. Engage stealth drives and take us down to Eden Prime."
"Yes Captain. You get that Commander?"
"Tell him I'm on my way Joker," I said. I left my two crew-members and headed towards the stern of the ship past the galaxy map and the busy crewmen and women. On the way I saw Private Jenkins, a hot-headed and eager young Marine, in what seemed to be a heated discussion with Doctor Chakwas, the ship's medical officer.
"I just want to see some real action, you know? I didn't join the Alliance to pickup a few boxes now and again," the young soldier exclaimed.
"I seriously hope you're joking. "Real action" usually ends with me patching up wounded Marines," came the sincere reply from the grey-haired woman.
"Is there a problem here?" I asked.
Private Jenkins stood to attention and saluted,
"No sir. I'm just keen to… you know… get out there and do some real Marine work!"
"You're young Jenkins. You've got a long career ahead of you if you do it properly. You'll get what you want one day but first you need to get a few easy missions out of the way first. It was the same for all of us, trust me."
"But sir, you fought on Elysium and became a hero! I joined the Alliance because of you, I want to do my part for Humanity as well."
I placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and gave him a stern look,
"Elysium was hell. I saw hundreds of my fellow Marines get slaughtered over those few days. I saw a Batarian bite a man's cheek off and then kick him to death. Is that what you want? Soldiers are peacekeepers as well, and if anything, that's the toughest job of them all. Be proud of your uniform private, no matter where you're serving."
Jenkins was silent for a moment, but when I motioned that I was going to leave he quickly saluted again,
"Thank you, sir."
The guards opened the doors to the comm room, but Anderson was nowhere to be seen. Only Nihlus was in the room, flicking through pictures and reports on Eden Prime on the monitor. Without looking round to see me he welcomed me in,
"Commander Gardner. I'm glad you're here. I was hoping for a quick chat before your Captain arrives."
I strode up next to him,
"Certainly."
"I want to know more about this colony of yours, Eden Prime. I believe it has become something of a symbol for Humanity."
I checked over the pictures that Nihlus had on display and nodded happily,
"It has. Of all our colonisation efforts, none have been as successful as this one. Not only that but it's one of the most beautiful planets I've ever laid my eyes upon. It's like Earth if it stayed summer all year round, everything's just… I don't know… better there."
"But is it safe?"
Nihlus' question caught me off guard,
"What? Why do you ask?"
Nihlus was pacing slowly back and forward as he spoke slowly and thoughtfully,
"Humanity is still a newcomer in the galaxy, it's a dangerous place out there. You've been part of the galactic community for about 26 years now, am I right? My people have been part of it for roughly one thousand five hundred, brought into the galactic fold during the Krogan Rebellions. The Turians have fought some devastating wars in our history, and we still believe that the worst is still out there on some uncharted world in some dark corner of the Milky Way. Anything can happen."
"Why are you telling me this Nihlus?" I asked worriedly.
No answer came. Instead, our conversation was halted by the arrival of Captain Anderson, who made extra sure that the door was securely shut before he began to speak,
"Nihlus, I think it's time we told Scott what's really going on here."
The Turian now stood by the images of Eden Prime again and focused his gaze on me,
"This is no simple "systems test". We're making a covert pickup of a highly secret artefact and then bugging out again before anyone can know what was there."
"What is it?"
"A Prothean beacon," Anderson said quietly.
"Prothean!" I was amazed, "They've been gone for fifty thousand years or more, surely this beacon can't be operational."
"Doesn't have to be, Commander. The data disk that we found on Mars almost 40 years ago jumped our technology forward over 200 years. An archaeological team discovered this beacon and contacted us immediately. Imagine what we could learn from this. And not just Humans, for all of the Council races."
"It would certainly help improve our diplomatic relations anyway," I agreed.
"I'm glad you said that," Nihlus said, "too many of the other species, Turians included, think that Humanity is just a bully muscling in on galactic politics, trying to gain control of everything."
"No. The best way forward is cooperation, always," I said sincerely.
Now I knew this mission was of massive importance, but that still left me with a question,
"I understand that what we're picking up is extremely valuable, but I still don't understand why it required a Spectre to come along."
Nihlus came and stood next to me, in a more friendly posture than before,
"I'm here to evaluate you, Commander. I will be joining you for quite a few missions over the near future, no matter how simple they may seem."
Now I was cautious,
"Evaluate me? For what exactly?"
Captain Anderson stepped forward, barely able to contain himself,
"Your name has been forwarded for Spectre candidacy. Humanity has been pushing for this for years. Nihlus will inform the Council on whether or not you're made of the right stuff."
My legs had almost went at the mention of the Spectre candidacy, I was shocked,
"Me? A Spectre? This is… I didn't… is Humanity ready so soon?"
"I think you are," Nihlus put in confidently, "it was me who put your name forward with the approval of the Human ambassador and admirals of the Alliance. What you achieved on Elysium showed that you have not only incredible skill as a soldier but a tremendous desire to win, succeed and do what is right as well."
"I'll do my best not to disappoint then," my face must have been showing a hundred different emotions all at once; confusion, disbelief, shock, happiness, stress. This was a tremendous honour. I could become the first ever Human Spectre, a highly prestigious gain for Humanity's standing with the other races.
I was still mulling things over in my head when Joker's voice came over the intercom, sounding very concerned and agitated,
"Sir! Emergency transmission from Eden Prime's surface. Patching it through to the comm room."
The monitor flashed and flickered, the static buzzing for a few seconds before an image began to appear. It was a video, shapes were moving to and fro, rushing around. As the audio began to work, I could hear gunfire and explosions, cries for help and men shouting out, asking what the hell was going on. The video became clearer just as a Marine was thrown from his feet by a shell-burst, the left side of his face torn to pieces. The man shooting the video was pushed to the ground by a female Marine,
"Get down. Somebody get those mortars on the go! Where's echo squad?"
She organised a few men and then turned back to the camera,
"This is Gunnery Sergeant Ashley Williams of the Two-Twelve Infantry Battalion. Eden Prime is being attacked by an unknown enemy, heavy fire and huge numbers are really wearing us down. Can anyone assist? We are too few to hold out and civilians are being targeted. Anybody receiving this transmission please assist ASAP."
An explosion interrupted her, and the cameraman aimed the camera into the sky above him. There were ships, dozens of them, and they all looked strange like nothing I had seen before.
Then another ship came into view, and this one dwarfed all the others in sight. It had a massively tall body, easily over a mile high, plus change, and at the bottom there were six huge arms like tentacles. To my eyes it looked almost like a giant squid; a giant, metal squid that was spitting out bright red particle beams in all directions. Several of the smaller ships raced over the cameraman's position, and then the signal died.
"There's nothing more after that, everything's static," Joker said.
Nihlus, Anderson and I were silent, unable to say anything for a moment. Each was trying to figure out what we had just seen; the peaceful farming planet of Eden Prime was under severe assault from what seemed like a planetary invasion force.
"They must be after the beacon!" I decided.
"Agreed," Nihlus added, "We need to get a ground team on Eden Prime as soon as possible Captain."
Anderson leapt to action and told Joker to take the Normandy as close to the location of the attack as possible before turning to me,
"Gardner, you're going to lead the ground team to investigate who's attacking the colony while Nihlus scouts ahead of you. This mission just got a lot more complicated."
Within minutes I was geared up and ready to move down in the cargo bay of the Normandy. Kaidan and Pte Jenkins stood with me, assault rifles locked and loaded while Nihlus stood by himself again.
"You not coming with us Nihlus?" Jenkins asked.
"I move faster on my own."
Captain Anderson entered, the strain showing on his face,
"Find out who's killing our people down there if you can, but the beacon is our top priority. Secure it, prep it for pickup and get it the hell off this world."
The Normandy swooped down low and Nihlus athletically leaped out of the open hanger door and landed lightly on the ground below. As he moved off into the trees Joker steered the ship another half-kilometre to a bare cliff edge; our drop-off point.
My feet hit the soft grass and I immediately headed for the nearest overhead cover, closely followed by my two team mates. Once the Normandy was away and out of sight, we quickly checked our surroundings and headed downhill away from the cliff edge and towards where there was supposed to be a small settlement. There were definitely sounds of gunfire and explosions, but they were distant and there were no drop-ships of any description within visual range. I signalled my team forward, staying within the confines of the trees and moving quietly and carefully.
We came upon a path and decided to follow it along the verge from where we could see a cluster of small cabins. The damage had been done in this area; the doors and windows of the cabin had been blasted and the walls were scarred all to hell, blasted by heavy laser shots of some kind. Then there were the bodies; littered around, twisted and lying as if they had died writhing in pain. A quick search revealed no clues as to the identity of the attackers, but we soon heard shots being fired from further into the hills, and they were getting closer.
"Eyes peeled! Engage targets only if we have all the advantages," I ordered.
I latched my Avenger onto my back and retrieved my Mantis sniper rifle. Every twenty feet or so I halted my men and scanned the area with my scope, hoping that we could see the enemy before they spotted us. I was too late. As soon as I ordered Jenkins and Kaidan forward again a beam of blue light flashed through the trees and carved straight through Jenkins' armour. As quickly as I could I scoped out the location where the shot had come from and as soon as I saw the slightest bit of movement, I pulled the trigger.
Whoever had fired at us received my bullet smack bang in the centre of their chest; now I just needed to find out who or what it was. Kaidan was kneeling over Jenkins' body; there was a hole in his chest wide enough for me to fit my fist into, but there was no blood. The focused energy weapon had burnt the flesh as it had tore through the young soldier, letting off the most horrendous smell.
I knew that Jenkins was dead, but I still had to check his vitals, just in case. There was nothing.
"Dammit," I said as I laid a hand on Jenkins' chest. I suddenly felt very exposed and decided that we needed to move as soon as we could.
"We need to keep going Kaidan, Nihlus will be waiting up ahead."
"Yes Sir."
"Normandy this is Commander Gardner. I need a CASEVAC on these coordinates. Jenkins was killed by a sniper. Kaidan and I are progressing on with the mission."
Joker's voice came over my headset,
"Roger that Commander. The shuttle will be en-route."
It didn't feel right leaving the young Marine there, but we still had an important mission to carry on with and Kaidan and I were soon on our way. I hurried to where the enemy shooter had died, desperate to see what we were up against. Kaidan took up a covering position and kept watch while I investigated. At first all I could see were the two feet protruding from behind a tree; only two large toes on each. That helped me to narrow down the species of the culprit: Turian, Quarian or Salarian. However, that started to bother me; pirates almost never came into Council protected space and mercenaries were always watched and monitored. Was this a breakaway group that had escaped detection? I did not have long to wait for my answer.
The sound of gunfire was drawing closer as I went around to the still body. It was nothing I had seen before: It was a synthetic creature, a robot. I had seen mechs before, the ones that usually provided security in places such as hospitals or banks, but this being was something else entirely. Two arms, two legs all attached to a body, as was normal, but the head appeared to be little more than an extended neck curving over to face forward. In the middle was one large light, or lens, and all around it was armour plating. The body and limbs were lightly armoured as well, but my shot had cut clean through it and destroyed its core body. In its hand, again with only a thumb and two large fingers, it clutched a long and sleek looking rifle. I looked the body up and down and rolled it over to see another part of it, but it was not making anything any clearer to me. What was it? Why was it here? Why did it see me and my men as enemies?
"Kaidan, I need you over here. Do you know what this is?"
As my friend came around the tree his eyes suddenly widened and he stopped in his tracks. His mouth hung open but he was slow to explain,
"Sir. I think…um… I think that it's a Geth."
"What?" I almost laughed, "that's ridiculous. Everyone knows they never leave the Perseus Veil, and that's on the farthest away edge of the galaxy from here."
"Not since they drove the Quarians from their home world, and that was over three hundred years ago, I'm sure," Kaidan explained, "maybe someone hacked it for their own use?"
Gunshots sounded from higher up the hill; a short sprint later and Kaidan and I were almost at the fire-fight. Through clusters of rocks and past trees we ran until we saw a flash of white running towards us. Both of us instinctively went our knees and drew our rifles up, but I immediately saw that it was a Marine running towards us, firing back behind her with her pistol.
"Marine," I called out, "over here. We've got you covered."
She turned and made straight for our position, phaser shots streaming in from behind her and charring whatever they hit. Once she was past us, we saw her pursuers coming at us, four of them all in a staggered line and closing fast. All of them Geth.
My first shot separated the head from the shoulders of the first Geth while Kaidan managed to gun down two of them with a few short bursts from his Avenger. The Marine took care of the last one as she put every round of her thermal clip into the machine, crying out with anguish as she did so.
"Are you ok Marine?"
She was gasping for oxygen, but she straightened herself up and saluted me, quickly,
"I'll be fine now Sir. Thank you. I'm sure they would have gotten me before I got off this damn hill," a few breaths more and she added, "Gunnery Sergeant Ashley Williams of the Two-Twelve Battalion. I'm… the last one of my unit, Sir."
"Commander Gardner of the SSV Normandy. I'm sorry about your men. Do you know what these things are doing here?"
"They're after the…um," she hesitated.
"The Prothean beacon?" Kaidan put in, "we know about it. We came here to extract it."
Ashley nodded,
"They made straight for the dig site when the first ground troops landed," she stared at the nearby synthetic bodies for a second, "are they… Geth?"
"We think so, "Kaidan answered.
"Oh my god! Why them? It doesn't make sense. My unit was forcing its way back into this area when we ran into an ambush. Never had a chance."
"We'll not find anything out standing here," I said, "Williams, can you take us to the dig site?"
The dig site was not too far away, but it was clear that the beacon had been removed. Inside a perimeter wall there stood four large columns of a strange architectural design, Prothean presumably, in a square formation. In the middle of the square was a flat platform, but nothing stood upon it and there was nothing else at the dig site of any importance.
"It was right here," Williams stated firmly, "The Geth have moved it."
Kaidan was scouting the surroundings as I contacted Nihlus,
"Nihlus, we've reached the Prothean dig site, but the beacon's been moved. Have you had any luck?"
"Negative. Seen a lot of bodies and signs of battle but nothing else. There's a small transport hub further ahead that I'm going to check out. It has a rail link so it could have been used to move the beacon. I'll wait for you there."
Ashley had been patched into our comms and came to help,
"The transport hub's not far from us. Just over that rise and down the other side of the hill."
"Good," I said, "let's go. Nihlus, watch out for Geth; we've had a couple of run-ins with them now. They killed Jenkins."
"Affirmative, I've just let a patrol pass by. Probably best not to use our comms while they're here. They could easily hack their way in and we'll be caught without even knowing they're coming."
"Rodger that. Gardner out."
The climb up the hill was steep and the constant fear of Geth appearing above us made it all the more strenuous. Nihlus was right; the hub could definitely have been used to get the beacon out of here, which would have made it a heavily guarded position. Just before I reached the top of the hill a single gunshot rang out. I ducked down and Kaidan and Ashley followed suit; I feared that it was another sniper having a go at us, but no shot had flown past us or struck anything nearby.
"Move forward, quickly," I whispered, suddenly feeling a chill run down my back. The transport hub appeared before us, a simple platform covered in boxes and cargo crates. At the back there was a small office block and further on from that was the rail link with several cargo trains sitting empty. From my high vantage point, I checked out the station through the scope of my rifle expecting to see it crawling with Geth, and hoping for a glimpse of the beacon. All I saw, however, was a scene of death and destruction. Bodies, human bodies were scattered all over the station and the shipping crates had been blown around or torn to pieces. Blood and fire covered the place.
That is when I saw him. Nihlus lay flat out on the deck, blood oozing out of the gaping wound in his head. The blue liquid was still forming a pool around the Spectre, he had been killed only moments before I had arrived at the crest of the hill. The gunshot I had heard was Nihlus' final moment on this world.
"We need to get down there immediately! Nihlus has been killed."
"What?" asked Kaidan.
"Who is Nihlus anyway?" asked Ashley.
"Turian Spectre, he was scouting ahead and was going to meet us at the station."
"Who killed him? They must still be nearby," Kaidan put in.
"You're right, stay focused and watch for snipers."
Using as much cover as we could we moved down to the station, stopping periodically to look for enemy soldiers, but we neither saw nor heard anything.
As I stood over Nihlus' body I realised that the shot had come from behind, the large exit wound bare and bleeding on his forehead. The more I thought about it, the more it bothered me that he was bleeding at all.
"It sounded like a sniper that took him out, but when we looked at Jenkins' wound it was burned so that there was no bleeding."
Kaidan and I looked at each other, waiting for the other to speak first. It was Ashley that made the decisive call,
"The Geth don't use normal weapons like us, it's all the same kind of tech. I've seen their sniper rifles, assault rifles and even shotguns; they're all phasic-based weapons."
I agreed, "that means that either a Geth was using a scavenged weapon from one of our Marines… or a traitor just executed Nihlus."
"Shit," came Kaidan's input.
"It was another Turian," a voice came from behind a stack of crates.
Kaidan, Ashley and I immediately had our rifles raised and locked on to the source of the voice when a man stepped out, pale and visibly shocked with his hands raised in submission. I signalled for guns to be lowered and stepped towards the man.
"I'm Commander Gardner of the Alliance. Tell me what happened here? How did he die?"
"There was a Turian strolling around here when your friend, Nihlus, showed up… I think they knew each other."
"They talked?"
"Yeah. Your friend called the other one Saren. Nihlus seemed to relax and let his guard down… then Saren shot him, executed him from behind."
"Saren?" I repeated. I knew that name, "but he's a Spectre as well."
"One of the best," Kaidan added.
The dock-worker pointed to the rail link,
"Once he killed your friend, he took the tramline after his… robot soldiers. They had the beacon with them."
I stared at him. I was not happy to hear that the enemy had the beacon, but it was good to know that we were catching up with the Geth. I told Ashley and Kaidan to follow me and ran off towards the train,
"We're right behind Saren. We find him, kill him and get our beacon."
The next station took about five minutes to reach, but those five minutes were some of the longest I had ever endured; waiting idly by on the train while knowing all the while that Saren could be loading the beacon onto a ship and flying off and out of my reach. As I strained my eyes forward to see when our destination port would be coming up, the day seemed as if it was turning to night almost instantaneously. I looked up and almost lost all feeling in my legs. The sun was being completely blocked out by the biggest ship I had ever seen.
It was the one I had seen in the video back on board the Normandy; a dark black construct with a tall body and six legs at the bottom. Around it the air seemed to be alive with red lightning and the blast of it lifting off caused the whole countryside to rock and groan. It soared up into the smoke-choked sky for all to see and Ashley could no longer contain herself,
"How the hell could we even take that thing out? There's nothing in the Alliance Navy that could go toe to toe with that ship. It looks even bigger now that I'm closer to it, I didn't think that was possible!"
"If the Geth can build a dreadnought like that and are on the offensive we're all in trouble," Kaidan said. I said nothing; I wanted to get off this damn train more than ever now.
Not soon enough, the train trundled up to our destination and I leapt off onto the platform. No sooner did my feet hit the ground than a phaser shot smashed into a barrier just beside my head,
"Geth! Get to cover and return fire."
The three of us all rushed up the walkway to a raised section of the platform and began hammering back with our own firepower. I hit a Geth straight in the neck, or what equated to their neck, and the construct collapsed into scrap metal. However, the Geth were closing in from two different directions and numbering around twenty. I switched to the Avenger and laid down suppressive fire while Ashley moved to another position, further securing our flank. I brought down another Geth with a spray of bullets, Ashley destroyed another before Kaidan suddenly called out,
"That squad coming over the bridge, one of the supports has already been weakened. If we move closer, I could take out the walkway."
"How?" Ashley asked.
"Biotics."
"Good idea," I said, "Ashley, you keep the Geth on our north side back and I'll cover the Lieutenant while he works the bridge. Ready? Go!"
Ashley threw a grenade at her foes and let loose with her assault rifle while I fired bursts of rounds at those crossing the walk-way no further than thirty feet from our position. Enemy fire was pouring in around us, but our cover was solid and soon Kaidan was shaking the entire bridge, violently wrestling with the support until…
SNAP!
The nearer half of the bridge buckled and fell away while the Geth were thrown to the ground below, most of them destroyed on impact. Those that were not were gunned down by Kaidan and I as they moved over the exposed tramline. Kaidan's face was red and sweat was pouring off of him. As a man without any biotic capabilities whatsoever it was easy for me to forget that biotics used a great amount of their own energy to manipulate the dark matter and use it.
His eyes were narrowed, strained and I could see that he was grinding his teeth; his tell-tale signs of a migraine. However, I never heard a word about it; Kaidan just kept going, kept fighting even though his head must have been screaming and his vision blurred or even almost gone. This was not the first time he had fought under such conditions, but I was yet to hear him make a single complaint from him. He was a true soldier.
Together my team managed to cut down the Geth as they advanced; they were certainly not reluctant to expose themselves to fire. I got the sense that they were simply trying to delay us rather than eliminate us. Their numbers were eventually few enough that we could make a break for it; I threw a grenade ahead of us and blew away some of our attackers and while the rest moved to fill the gap Kaidan and Ashley shredded them with their rifles. We rushed towards the other bridge that lay about two hundred metres away. On the other side there were still Geth firing at us, but the crates and support columns gave us all the cover we needed to move with confidence. shots flew back and forward across the bridge as the Geth and my team tried to kill off the other; the air around us was alive with the zipping and buzzing of bullets and phaser shots.
Through the scope of my Mantis, I watched as my target dropped to the ground, a big hole punched through its chest. But as the body fell and revealed the patch of platform behind it, I saw the bomb. It was huge; easily almost as tall as I was and rested on a tall stand. A light blinked away menacingly on the top; it was active.
"Bomb! On the far side of the station. We need to deactivate it now."
I ordered Kaidan and Ashley to lay down as heavy a firestorm as possible, the Geth ducked for cover and I immediately ran straight for the bridge. Phasers flew through the air around me, burning away at any solid cover they hit, but I managed to make it across and find a good position.
A Geth came rushing up to me and went to give me the butt of his rifle in my jaw, I swerved aside and hooked the machine's arm. It was heavier than I had anticipated, but I still managed to throw the Geth down before me and fill its head with two shots from my rifle. Kaidan and Ashley swiftly joined me and we pushed forward along the walkway, dodging in and out of crates and pillars, firing as we went. There were still Geth moving further on directly ahead of us, but we made a right turn and rushed off towards where I had seen the bomb.
That was my priority now; the beacon must have been gone by now, taken by Saren and the Geth on the massive star-ship we had seen take off. But as we closed in on our target, I could see another construct down on a lower platform behind where the bomb was situated. A dark coloured, angular shaped column with a strange green energy emitting from within it. Ashley saw it to and her face lit up momentarily,
"That's the beacon!"
"Why's it lit up like that? Did the excavation team activate it or something?"
"No. It wasn't doing anything like that before."
Shots hammered into the wall just behind us, but we kept up our pace and raced for the bomb. The light blinked away as we approached and my heart was in my mouth. I ordered Kaidan to check over the bomb while Ashley and I held off the pursuing Geth. We had them funnelling into a kill zone and soon five of them lay strewn on the floor. The rest held back and were trying to pick us off at range; but with my sniper rifle I soon had them either dying or retreating.
"Scott!" Kaidan's voice rang out, "this is a nuclear device!"
That sent a chill firing through me,
"Jeezus. Can you disarm it?"
"It looks like a jury-rigged device, can do it but it might take me a while."
I looked back up to where the Geth were still firing at us. We had taken down a good number of them but there were more coming than we had anticipated.
"Shit," I said, "this station must be bigger than we thought, we've stirred up a hornet nest."
At that moment the wall about twenty metres from our position was suddenly ripped apart by an explosion and when the smoke cleared a few Geth started coming through.
"Ash, you take the walkway and I'll deal with the wall-breach. Kaidan, keep going mate!"
Kaidan had crawled under the bomb by this point and his hands seemed to be working at a million miles an hour. Ashley was burning through her ammunition faster than any of us would have liked, but the situation definitely called for maximum weight of firepower. I was tense; this operation had gone to hell even before we had landed and now death looked like it might not be too far away. That, however, did not matter. What mattered was disabling the bomb; thousands of innocent lives would be lost if we failed, but I had confidence in Kaidan's abilities.
More and more Geth were falling, but more and more were arriving with each minute that passed. Only through keeping a cool head and focusing on dropping every Geth I could see did we manage to hold them just long enough for…
A warning signal blared from the bomb, the light started flashing faster and faster.
"Kaidan?!"
"Almost got it… just… wait."
The beeping was getting faster, counting down to detonation.
"Kaidan!" I screamed.
"There," Kaidan said, "I've done it. They won't be able to reactivate it either."
"Good job! Now let's fall back before we're completely overrun."
Ashley and Kaidan fell back while I covered them, rendering the Geth unable to advance along the narrow walkways. Once I had joined them, we dug in once again and fought our enemy for what seemed like hours. The Geth could not get close enough to us to get clear shots, but we were almost backed into a corner and running extremely low on thermal clips. I had tried to radio Joker on the Normandy to bring in some air support, but all communications were still down and signals jammed. A few grenades dealt with a group of Geth who were closing in when all of a sudden I saw a phasic shot the size of my head shooting towards us.
"Get down!"
The column that I was hiding behind was almost completely vapourised and the force of the explosion threw me ten feet through the air into a sprawling heap behind Ashley.
"Commander!" She yelled.
"I'm ok, I'm ok," I gasped. My head was spinning and my shoulder was aching like someone had taken a hammer to it. The Geth that had fired the shot soon made itself known; a huge machine standing easily 8 feet tall and built with a broader body than the regular infantry. In its three-fingered hands it carried what I could only describe as a mini-gun, seven barrels started spooling up and unleashed an unforgiving volley of bullets.
As the air around us became choked with phaser I dragged myself behind a shipping crate, my shields lighting up a few times as shots hit me, almost burning my shields out as they did so.
"That's got to be some kind of command-and-control unit," I shouted to my team, "focus everything you've got on it."
Three assault rifles blared into life and bombarded the lead Geth with bullets, its shields lit up and deflected every one of them.
"It's not working," Kaidan shouted, "we don't have any heavy weapons."
"Keep shooting! Wear the shields down."
All three of us kept shooting; firing bursts at the large unit and then at some of the normal Geth. I switched to my Phalanx pistol, hoping the heavier calibre would make a difference. One shot, two shots, three shots squarely into the Geth control unit's chest and all it did was stagger it for a mere second. Kaidan stood up and threw his last grenade straight at the machine, and the explosion did the trick of knocking the Prime unit to the ground.
However, it was not dead. Its arms twitched and it started to push itself up again. I had had enough. Drawing my sniper rifle I raced straight up to the Geth and placed the end of my barrel right on its head. Phaser shots were flying all around me and I took a couple of hits. I pulled the trigger and the head of the Geth was blown to pieces as the high calibre bullet tore through the outer-plating and shredded everything inside. I ran back to Kaidan and Ashley, and as I did so my radio crackled back into life,
"…this… the Normandy… anyone there?"
"Joker," I said, over the moon to hear his voice, "this is Commander Gardner. We've located the beacon but are under heavy Geth attack. Need air support at my coordinates. Watch what you shoot, we had to disable a nuclear bomb. The Geth were planning to wipe out the entire colony."
"Repeat," Captain Anderson stated, "did you say the Geth, Commander?"
"Affirmative, Sir. It'll take a bit of explaining."
"Rodger that Commander. We'll get you out of there first. Hang tight!"
True to his nature, Joker brought the sleek form of the Normandy gliding down to where Ashley, Kaidan and I were hunkered down and under a hail of phaser fire. The ship spun round to face the flank of the Geth, and opened fire. That was the most terrifying moment I could remember to date; one badly aimed shot and Joker could detonate the nuke and all of this would have been for nothing. As the Normandy blasted the Geth into scrap my eyes were glued to the dormant bomb; as if waiting for one foul round to strike it and turn us all into radioactive waste. Then my eyes travelled over to the Normandy. My fears washed away when I remembered that the man in the pilot seat was the best damn pilot that the Alliance possessed; and I had absolute faith in him.
Soon enough, Joker had annihilated the Geth and when I stood up to investigate, all I could hear was the hum of the Normandy's engines; no gunfire, no explosions or screams. However, there was still little time to enjoy our brief respite for the mission was still incomplete. We walked past the heaps of Geth that littered the area and finally, after our intense struggle, made it to the beacon. It still glowed a deep green with the occasional spark of energy, but as I got closer to the construct, I began to feel more and more that I was being pulled towards it, rather than moving to it out of my own free will.
"Joker to ground team. Ready to extract you and the package once it's secure, Commander."
That snapped me out of my apparent trance and I stopped,
"Copy that Joker," I answered, "will begin securing beacon immediately. Just keep an eye out for any more of our synthetic enemies."
First, I heard a shriek, and then I heard Kaidan call out. As I looked round towards the beacon, I saw Ashley being slowly lifted off of her feet and levitated in front of the beacon, her body looked to be in spasm. I ran up to her and grabbed her around the waist before I barely managed to throw her away from the beacon. But when I tried to get away, I was ensnared by some invisible force. Lifted off of my feet I hovered two feet in the air and I began to hear voices in my mind. My body ached and twitched uncontrollably. Soon images began to appear; things I could not describe, creatures I did not recognise.
The flashing images were a confused mass of information. I saw flesh and wires, teeth and creatures of metal. People of a race I did not recognise were being slaughtered by the millions; entire planetary populations were being brutally and mercilessly exterminated. There were buildings on fire, there were worlds on fire. My head felt like it was splitting and then, as my head was snapped back, there was only darkness.